Posted by Doug Klink on Monday, September 16, 2013,
In :
Announcements

As you may or may not have heard, Estes Park was hit hard by the effects of historical rainfall and flooding, including access to the community, which has been effectively cut off, except for local resident access and critical deliveries. The Estes Park community is tough, and will work through the challenges over the coming days months and years.

The museum itself is set high on a hill, and was not impacted by any flooding, the collection is safe.

In one day, in the same group we welcomed 3 car clubs to the Museum on Saturday June 16th during our regular open house. From Wyoming, Brighton and Fort Collins, we were pleased to provide a stop, restroom facility, and tour of the Museum for about 50-60 guests (and their beautiful automobiles from the teens to the 70's).

Director Klink led the tour, and related some of his better stories about how he fell into this adventure- of fire trucks and restoration.

Butch is carefully guiding the balanced beam as Doug shuffles it into the building with the forks. Careful to watch your toes Butch!The other day Doug called and asked if Trevor and I could stop by and help move some ladders with he and Butch. We stopped by and found a pile of goodies that Doug had collected during a whirlwind trading tour that resulted with a new pile of wood for an upcoming project.

The pile consisted of ground ladders and 2 timbers that will be used to re-construct the ma...Continue reading ...

Raising the flag before the tours began. Attached to the basket of the snorkel, the huge American flag makes a great impression.

Getting cleaned up for this months public tour day, I received a call from a lady that reported to me a large bird (eagle?) that had gotten it's leg caught in the light fixture at the football field, 50' in the air. She knew who to call! Not to brag, but at the Reliance Fire Museum, we do have the longest ladder in town, and we're quick. In fact, after chatting with... Continue reading ...

There is a large crank on both sides of the truck to raise the water tower, hand powered!

Last month, in preparation for the open house- we pulled the water tower onto the apron in front of the garage doors and set the tower up.... Actually, Trevor and Andrew set the tower up, by hand, with elbow grease. In the old days, the firefighters were real men! Cranking the tower up at the scene of a fire was probably pretty quick, fueled by adrenaline at the curb of a hot building fire- but today, w... Continue reading ...

Waiting patiently at the Estes Park fire station for some TLC, Opal had a few flat tires for starters.

'Opal' arrived at the Museum last week.

This little truck started out in the Nebraska plains, and ended up in the hands of the Estes Park volunteers who used her to appeal to kids and families at public events for several years. After sitting for some time and not being used after a couple of mechanical challenges, the Volunteers donated the truck to the Museum with hopes that she could be rev... Continue reading ...

The first part of the clipping sent to us that features our '32 LaFrance (on the left)

It used to be a pleasant surprise every time a stranger would walk into the shop, or drop by a car show or fire muster and say: "I remember when I worked on that truck", or "pumped that truck" or "my father/brother/uncle worked at the station that truck was at"..... It happens so much any more that it's not a surprise when you see him coming- with a sparkle in his eye as he fancies the glimmer of the bumper ... Continue reading ...

Actually, from our perspective, it's the Fire Truck and Santa- but most people would give Santa more attention than just an old 100' tiller truck from Beverly Hills- you know.

For several years, I have been at the theater welcoming Santa to throngs of little kids for the annual Christmas movie with Santa at Reel Mountain Theater in Estes Park. Since our family sold the theater last year, I finally got to help deliver Santa to the theater. Now I understand why Doug likes this assignment, delive... Continue reading ...

Saturday was fun for us! Although we dropped attendance from last months 100 visitors, we enjoyed having time to talk with everyone that braved the snowy roads to peek inside the Museum during our November public tour.

We'll get back to our regular tour schedule in February on the third Saturday, and probably expand those hours for the summer.

In the meantime, we'll be at the museum watching old Emergency re-runs on VHS...

Last week Doug picked up this 1911 tiller aerial from the Sacramento Fire Dept on the semi trailer (which is how most trucks get here). The tiller has a colorful history in California, including being hit by two streetcars at the same time (the frame damage is still visible in the trailer).

We will be rebuilding this truck for SFD, and expect that the project will take about two years.

The 1914 Ahrens Fox tractor was repainted without the trailer and displayed at Harrah's in Las Vegas, and has ... Continue reading ...

Although we're not big talkers, we enjoy sharing the news from the museum in Estes Park. To make that easier, we're going to post the latest happenings here on the blog- which you can subscribe to (see the RSS link on the right side of this page).

By subscribing, you'll hear about events, new additions, complete projects and other pertinent stuff from our little part of the world without having the check in with the website every day. You won't want to miss some of the great stuff coming up in... Continue reading ...

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Reliance Fire Museum

Estes Park, Colorado

The Reliance Fire Museum is a 501c3 non-profit corporation governed by a Board of Directors including President Douglas Klink, Director Gary Judd, and Director Mark Igel. KVR is the restoration and repair company that works under the Reliance Museum roof and keeps the fleet in tip-top shape. In addition to the contributions of the Reliance Board, Lead Mechanic Butch Lundstedt turns most of the wrenches that keep the engines purring.